Mapenzi Overland

Hope you're still with us despite the lapses in diary and photos! Our Egypt photos are almost up to date, and accessible via the link on the photos page. Unfortunately, our trip diary has corrupted and we've lost the last 8 days or so... So can't upload until we've re-written it! We don't expect much internet access for the next few weeks though, so might be a while. Please be patient!

It will make for entertaining reading though, as we've had a few dramas, so stay tuned! Mapenzi is on board a dodgy pontoon, bound for Sudan, and we should be boarding the passenger ferry tomorrow, to cruise down the Nile and meet her in Wadi Halfa on Tuesday. Feel a bit lost without our home! With a great group of overlanders for the next leg, which will be fun.

Very quick hello from Luxor, as we join the convoy to Aswan in half an hour. Have had potentially bad news that the ferry ato Wadi Halfa is full, and there is a holiday next Monday so no voyages scheduled, so our Sudan (mis?!)adventures begin already!

We've met up with our new travelling buddies Chantal and Wim, as well as the Belgian Angeleo truck and a French family with a dog, so hopefully we will form enough of a presence to encourage the Nile Navigation dudes to think of a solution for us...

Have had a wonderful week or so since we last wrote - the spectacular White Desert, snorkelling in the Red Sea, and a few temples and ruins thrown into the mix.

Hope that Christmas fever hasn't swallowed you all just yet :-) and that you're all happy and healthy.

We have started travelling south, and write to you from the luxury of a friend's beautiful apartment in Maadi, a leafy green suburb of Cairo.Libya was an incredible experience - 9 days of insane driving from the locals, plodding mile-munching from Mapenzi, spectacular mountains, stunning desert dunes, and a lot of rough camping...

We've got our diary up to date, and photos up on flickr, so thank you for your patience while we were out of contact!

Hopefully we can collect our Sudanese visas this afternoon, and will be able to do Mapenzi's 6000 mile service over the next day or so. Then we'll treat ourselves to the Great Pyramids in Giza before heading south to the oases, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel, and the ferry to the Sudan...

Propane gas, they say, is easier to find in Africa than butane. Not in these parts it seems.

Well folks, a lot of hanging about but it seems our Libya visas are ready and we look forward to crossing the border tomorrow am. Dont know the name of the guide whos supposed to help us through passport control but hopefully he will be looking out for us.

As you may have guessed from our diary, our sojourn into the dunes was cut short by a broken spring; thankfully not ours. Oh well.

Our diary and photos are now up to date but we are unlikely to be able to keep it that way over the next 10 days or so. Please forgive us and stay in touch.